Urban Nature Explorers: Week 4 Summer Camp recap

​Denver is a wild place, and SPREE loves to explore it! This week, we practiced the skills of urban naturalists, learned about the wildlife of Denver, and explored what it takes to care for our City’s parks.

The first step of exploring is safety, and you stay safer if you know the other explorers you are outdoors with! Monday, we focused on getting to know all the campers we would be exploring with, by playing a name game during our first activity.. We also got to know our South Platte River with a critter crawl, and activity we do each day to catch and learn about macroinvertebrates that live in our river!

Tuesday’s mission from Chompers emphasized the importance of preparation when you are going on outdoor adventures. Campers made water goals for the day. We try to meet water goals every morning of camp and meet them each day with fun incentives like sponging a teacher, or a small prize! We then made two useful crafts for outdoor exploration: a water bottle koozie, and a on-the-go first aid kit- both crafts could come in useful when at SPREE camp in the city, or mountain exploration with their family!

Our second activity of the day was critter crawl. Critter crawl started with a discussion about how to be prepared for water in the outdoors: bring extra shoes to camp, pack extra clothes, follow all water rules, etc. Campers then got into the River to catch macroinvertebrates. 

On Wednesday, we learned about the people who care for parks, including SPREE campers! Campers explored Denver park rules, and learned about Denver Park Rangers who make sure people follow rules when using shared park spaces. Campers then recorded PSA video skits they created to encourage others to care for parks the way they do each day of camp!

Thursday’s mission was all about enjoying park spaces. Campers have lots of experience enjoying Johnson Habitat Park, but this field day we went to Overland Pond Park for a packed day of excitement! We were met at the park by Trout Unlimited who led us in a trout release from baby fish that one of our River Rangers raised into our South Platte River! 

After an exciting morning, we took a raft out into Overland Pond! Campers put on PFDs and got into SPREE’s inflatable raft- the skills demonstrated were top notch! When campers weren’t rafting, they enjoyed the views and wildlife of Overland Pond Park, and got into the water for critter crawl!

Fridays are fun- always! This Friday, our focus was South Platte Animals. In our first activity, a camper was turned into a beaver! We dressed up as a lucky camper with beaver adaptations, and it turns out our campers don’t look as shabby as a beaver. We of course, turned this camper back into a human before moving into the next challenge: jump like a squirrel. Campers tested their skills at jumping like a fox squirrel. A fox squirrel can jump 15ft in a single bound! Do you think any of our campers topped this? ​

​During our final critter crawl for the week, campers splashed in the South Platte River and found crawdads, mayfly larvae, scuds, and more! It was a great way to cap off a great week of camp. 

Campers left camp with a self-made Urban Animal Field Guide to take around the city, and into the mountains to identify the wildlife around us until you hang out with SPREE down at the River again!